Blood and guts, well, no guts. :)

Travis and I have found a really great running trail. It's called the Cross County Trail (CCT). It goes from the top of Fairfax County, to the bottom, and it's about 40 miles. The really cool thing is it's accessible from our neighborhood. Well, we actually have to go through a little tree path to the next neighborhood over to the trailhead to the actual trail. The first time we ran on it we didn't know how far it was, where we were going, or much about it, but we felt good, loved the fresh air (better than running close to the Parkway with all the exhaust), and we saw 8 deer. That was my favorite part. We ended up running about 6 miles. That was the first day of the rest of our runs.... :) We REALLY like the trail, so we've taken to running down there instead of on our old, normal route.

Now, some of the trail is paved, there is a creek that runs by it and sometimes you have to cross over it, but there are built up stepping stones to go across without getting wet. Some of the trail is dirt or crushed rock. I like running on the dirt better just because it's softer than the asphalt part. But on Wed the unpaved part of the trail got me a good one! There are hills on the trail, and Travis likes to bonzai down them. So, if I was in the front and we came to a downhill, I'd let him go first so he could go full force down and I could be careful. I had warned him early in the run that I had to be careful so the children would still have one parent if he killed himself! hee hee So, we were done with about 5 miles, had one mile to go. We went up this rooted, rutted, dirt hill and had to go down the other side. I let Travis go in front of me so I could "be careful" and a root just jumped out and grabbed my foot and I went down! Travis said all he heard was my scream. I hit with my hands and knee, then rolled. I told him I wish he had been behind me so at least one of us could have seen how funny it looked. He rushed back to me and made me get up before it stiffened up. We walked a bit and it actually didn't hurt too much so we finished our run with blood down my leg.

Here we are after we got home. I'm pretty proud of my Gnarly Trail Run Injury. :) I don't want to do it again, but we are definitely staying on the trail to run. We'll just take a pack with bandages and maybe some little medicated towelettes. :) Today is Saturday, my knee looks good, just a few scabs, not nearly as cool as when I did it. We're going to attempt 10 miles today. I'll keep you posted. :)